In scuba diving, for instance, a supply of air, or of an air-oxygen mixture, is typically fed to a mouthpiece of the scuba diver from a high-pressure tank. Enroute to the diver, the air passes via a first-stage pressure-reducing regulator to a second-stage regulator which, in turn, supplies the mixture to the mouthpiece, when pressure within the regulator is diminished upon the diver's inhalation.
Second-stage regulators of the known type have an inlet chamber connected to the outlet of the first-stage regulator, and an outlet chamber connected to the mouthpiece of the user and separated from the outside environment by an elastically deformable diaphragm which blocks an opening formed in the regulator body. The diaphragm is connected via a lever to a poppet which closes off the passage between the two chambers. The pressure inside the inlet chamber is maintained constant at approximately ten bars as the pressure in the tank varies thanks to appropriate calibration of the first-stage regulator. When the user does not breathe, his or her lungs, the mouthpiece, the outlet chamber and the outside environment are at the same pressure. When the user inhales, a vacuum is created inside the outlet chamber and the diaphragm bends towards the interior of said chamber, moving the poppet, which normally closes the passage between the inlet chamber and the outlet chamber, to an opening position.
The opening of the passage between the inlet chamber and outlet chamber creates an overpressure in the outlet chamber, so that the diaphragm returns into the rest position, moving the lever and returning the poppet into the starting position wherein the passage between the inlet chamber and the outlet chamber is closed once again.
In second-stage regulators of the known type the regulator seat, on which the seal of the head of the poppet rests, is housed inside the inlet conduit of the regulator which is integral to the body of the same regulator. This configuration complicates the regulator calibration operations required during assembly to compensate the unavaoidable dimensional deviations, within the design tolerances, of the various components from the optimum values. Moreover minor maintenance work on the regulator, which could be performed without problems even by the user, instead requires intervention by a specialised technician in that the device has to be recalibrated each time.